Ravant Posted August 19, 2016 Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) Alright, as promised, I'd told some people I'd post a catch-up build thread as I took a break from getting this done. A little backstory: I got the Anovos kit without the intention of getting it done by DragonCon this year. However, I've more or less gotten sucked in. So much, in fact, that I neglected to take unboxing photos, or even pictures of the progress along the way to my current point. Though, from here forward, I'll make sure to take plenty of photos. I'm going to separate the thread into a few posts here, to make future reference and navigation easier for anyone that might want to use what's left of what I've done for their own purposes. Contents (A work in progress!) Workspace/Storage/Already Completed Items! Kidney plate shimming (Because I'm not done losing weight yet, but still need to.) Leg Day! (Working on the legs...) Internal helmet mods! (For the sake of comfort.) Adjusting fitment... final Editor's note: I'll be editing to update this initial post with links in the contents as the posts get made. It's gonna take me a bit to make it all happen! Edited September 10, 2016 by Ravant 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) Workspace/Storage/Already Completed Items! Well, here goes nothing! I'm hoping these pictures aren't huge. I had to shrink them from my phone to make them forum-acceptable. Workspace: I know it's cluttered, but it's an organized chaos. Got some stuff drying along the far edge of the table, with tools/mats on the leftmost side and a workspace closer to the right. I've usually got a chair in front of here, but I was vacuuming up bits/dust of Hasbro E11 I had to cut off. Storage: Costuming storage! It's temporary. Pay no mind to the leftmost column. That is not the column you're looking for. Move along. Now on to (some of) the already-completed items! Button Painting: Thermal Det: Forearm (Not sure which side...) Initial fitment and issue discovery: That last one's a bit of a pain. The shoulder bells and biceps need work. The issues are as follows: I mis-placed some of the strapping, so the biceps aren't held as high on my arm under the bell as they should. The left shoulder bell is "squeezed in" at the bottom, as if it's pinching down on the bicep. I need to put some weight on it and hang it somewhere to stretch that out. The strapping mount point in the upper part of the shoulder is too close to the stop. I have spare Velcro. I'll be fixing this down the line when I get to my fitment step. Edited August 19, 2016 by Ravant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 19, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) Ab plate shimming The unfortunate fact of life is, I'm not built like a 1976/1977 Brit. I've got extra weight I'm lugging around on my bones. I'm working to remedy the situation as quickly as possible, but since that's a year or more out, I've decided to take some temporary measures in shimming my kidney plate so there's no gap between it and the ab. This'll do double-duty in also making the strapping that Anovos supplied with the kit actually reach its objective on the opposite plate without killing me in the process! (Well, maybe. Can never be too sure.) I've already taken the first step toward this goal prior to starting this build thread. I took off the inner return edges on the sides so I could add these inner strips that will act as the Kidney-plate-side support for the shims. The shims themselves were unfortunately not cut out of the same ABS the rest of the Anovos kit was cut from, so, color is a bit off. However! I'm going to try to see if a layer of ABS paste (made from the Anovos scraps) will rectify that on a test piece. All of that, however, will be edited to toss into here as soon as I get the acetone involved. So, more to come! Stay tuned. And - here's the edits. Back of the shim, glued to the tab. The colors are not matching! Which, normally I'd panic, but I've two options. I'm exploring one of the options over the course of today. I made some ABS paste for the seam. It needs to dry, then I'll sand this smooth and polish it with some Novus to make it look smooth. That doesn't deal with the color issue... so... This is the other side. I may do this to both, spread the ABS paste across the whole of the shim, sand and polish. It'll be a pain to get to that point, but at least the colors will match! I was hoping to have this TK done/ready for final fitment by Sunday, but I don't think it's going to happen at this point... at least it'll come out good, I hope! This is all prior to sanding/polishing. I need to wait for it all to fully dry to make it work. What I did was I mixed scrap ABS into acetone 'til it was thick, but still flow-able. (I didn't want a thick paste.) Then I used other bits of scrap ABS as an applicator, smoothing out the liquid ABS over the surface as best I could. The bumps and the like are from abnormalities during drying as the surface contracts around the still-liquid ABS underneath. Once it dries all the way through, I'm going to sand it 100% smooth, use some plastic polish to bring it to the same shine as the kidney plate, and call it a day. I'll update this with the new pictures once that's done. (Likely not 'til tomorrow, but hey, worth a try!) Also a note: DO NOT BLOW ON THE ABS PASTE TO DRY IT. I can't stress that enough. I had to re-do an entire shim plate because I tried this. It creates a cool pattern all over the surface of the ABS, but you really don't want this as your base if you're going for something smooth later on down the line... if there's any demand, I'll do it on a test strip and take a picture to show you what I mean. Alright, the ab plates are complete! (Note, this is before I modified the holster to be only two screws. More on that in the fitment post when I write it up.) Edited August 22, 2016 by Ravant 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alay[TK] Posted August 19, 2016 Report Share Posted August 19, 2016 Nice work so far! Anovos kit is very pretty. Hard to see 100% from the photos, but your eyes might need a bit more trimming/sanding out. Post an upclose picture first though as it might just be the image. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 Thank you! Thanks for the heads-up, looking more closely, the eyes do need some trimming/detail work to be good. The lens behind it presses against them and makes certain edges more visible than they should be. When I take it apart to black out the inside, I'll trim it as well, killing two birds with one stone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2016 (edited) Well, I've run into a snag. My shims on the ab plate don't match the armor at all. I thought I'd found a paint that would also match, but testing on a test strip? No dice. Any idea on the best way to get a good paint match on the shims? Or at the very least, smooth blend the colors from one to the other and back across the shim so it's not quite so noticeable? Unfortunately, I need about a 4" shim on either side. (I'm a big guy.) Edit: Nevermind, I think I've figured it out. (See the kidney plate post above!) Instead, I'm gonna put the legwork images below here later. Leg Day(s)! (There was more work than I anticipated!) Alright, I started with the shins and got this little guy done. (I'm still messing with it to try and minimize the bottom gap, but it's now lined up with the top shin ridge.) The other one's also done, just minus the knee. Same joint construction method, non-overlap. Then I started on the thighs. Whoo, boy. This was... a problem. Starting to prep to add shims. Cover strip install. And here starts my mistake. I thought I shimmed it enough. That was not the case. It was too short by... a lot. Finalizing said mistake... When I realized my foley, I took it home, took it all apart, and began increasing the size of the shims. Here's one after I added the shim and ABS-pasted away the seams. Still needs sanding/polishing, but... it works. Same on the other side, actually putting it together. It needs sanding/polishing, but at least it'll fit right this time. Need to extend this ridge. I've got something... Once the glue dries and the ABS paste finishes drying, I'll apply it to the left thigh's rearward gap. All will be sanded, then polished when the Novus gets here. Added the cover for the gap and added some ABS paste. Going to need to hit it with one more layer tomorrow. And the bottom of the same. The seams under the clamps are what I'm going to have to cover, but I'm afraid to take the clamps off until the E6000 holding this thing in place fully cures. Ammo belt added. Rivet one painted. Rivet two painted. (Blurry picture, sorry.) I'll update this with the finished product once both thighs' glue dry completely. Probably not 'til tomorrow at this rate. Guess approval won't be happening before DragonCon. Is my own fault though, I procrastinated, trying to lose as much weight as I could before starting this project. Edited August 23, 2016 by Ravant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 (edited) Internal Helmet Mods The stock suspension shipped with the Anovos helmet is... iffy at best. The back velcro comes undone very quickly in the heated environment of the helmet. SO! I purchased a motorcycle helmet liner, blacked out the interior of the helmet as best I could (for at least what you'd be able to see through the eyes, then added the liner. I'm also putting together a fan/battery pack, and fabric-gluing in some velcro for my ice packs. Looks like the eyes need trimmed. I'll get to that when I muck with the lens. Blacked out with helmet liner installed. One of the many ice packs that will be dispersed through the armor/helmet to help absorb and deal with heat. And the fan unit. This one was a fun little mini-project. It's a pair of 18650 battery holders. These holders put two 18650's in series to one another. Then I wired the battery packs themselves parallel to one another. So what this gives me is a pair of 7.4v, 4000 mAh battery packs. Wiring them in parallel allows me to go roughly 8000 mAh (not adjusting for inefficiency. It'll be more like 7500-ish if the batteries last as long as advertised.) Since the fan itself only pulls ~150 mAh, I can expect about 50-ish hours of continuous run. BUT! Since I'm expecting these batteries to only have about half their advertised capacity, I can still expect ~23-ish hours of continuous runtime on that fan. I also wired a little μ-resistance switch in-line with the fan so it can be turned on and off without pulling a battery. The resistance is so low on the switch, my cheapo-multimeter failed to register any at all. Which, this makes me happy. I wanted to put in a rheostat to control RPM, but that would kill battery life. More to come as I complete these modifications. (That includes trimming the eyes. Because, they need it.) Edited August 22, 2016 by Ravant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Adjusting fitment! Almost there..... need to stay on target though. But seriously. All that needs done for fitment are the shoulder bells/biceps (need to move velcro points around.) and the thighs. Very first test-fit. Issues I've noticed, and please chime in if you see anything else wrong: Kidney shim on my right (left in the pic) keeps popping out of the ab plate. I'm adding tabs to fix that. Bottoms of the shoulder bells stick out a bit far. Biceps keep slumping too low, which then causes the forearms to slump a little low. Oh... my... GHAWD, you guise. I just got my transfer to DS-1! How do I look? This time, the left plate popped out, but the right behaved. Biceps are still being a pain. More to come once the thighs fully dry and are ready for wearing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) Well, good news, bad news. The Good: Found out my new undersuit keeps me cool/borderline /cold/... I am still gonna sweat like crazy, but I'm not going to die. And I now know what needs adjusting and can work accordingly. The Bad: First functional test of the TK was a glaring failure. Thigh straps failed, left shin velcro got screwed up, need to readjust fan to keep face from fogging, and need to readjust thigh position to keep armor-bite away. The Ugly: Should just leave the bucket on... Edited August 26, 2016 by Ravant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alay[TK] Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 Damn dude I looked away from your thread for five minutes and you're blasting through it! Great work! Bring those shoulder bells in so they're snug to the chest if you can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 26, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) Damn dude I looked away from your thread for five minutes and you're blasting through it! Great work! Bring those shoulder bells in so they're snug to the chest if you can Yeah, I'm determined to have it done/ready for DragonCon. XD I'm trying to bring them in. Because of the return edges, they're pinching down on the biceps and pushing outward. The Anovos Builders Group on Farcebook gave me a bit of advice on how to fix, going to try it tonight and see how it goes. And if the trimming of the return edges doesn't work, I may run some elastic across the chest in the front to connect 'em. We'll see. Right now, I'm focused on getting my left thigh calf to stop un-velcro-ing, and I'm trying to find a good position for the thigh snaps, as one unsnapped and the other somehow unglued from the ab plate. Edited August 29, 2016 by Ravant 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alay[TK] Posted August 26, 2016 Report Share Posted August 26, 2016 Can you post a picture of the edge that's causing you trouble? Not familiar with the Anovos kit personally but might be able to offer up some help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted August 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 Can you post a picture of the edge that's causing you trouble? Not familiar with the Anovos kit personally but might be able to offer up some help I'm thinking about just shrinking those return edges by half, then getting some elastic to run across the chest under the front plate to pull them together in the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alay[TK] Posted August 29, 2016 Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 None of the armor is required to have return edges on it for 501st approval (ANH stunt TK anyways...) so if you want to just take the entire thing off that's perfectly fine too. I have maybe 0.5-1mm return edge at most on my shoulder bells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted September 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2016 (edited) And some new pictures. (Will post more when I get back home from DragonCon.) Missed every shot, he died anyway.... Edited September 4, 2016 by Ravant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novak Dimon[TK] Posted September 4, 2016 Report Share Posted September 4, 2016 (edited) Hi Eddie, Great job with your armor. That was a lot of work with all these shims! Here are some points I noticed. -I see your thigh ammo pack is sliding down. You can use a drop of E6000 to prevent that. -The next thing is the seam of the left kidney-shim (Perhaps the right side too). It is clearly visible. I would recommend to sand it down until it is level with the kidney plate and not visible anymore. -Finally I would recommend to change the soft Anovos belt to a more rigid one. You find some great belts here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19803-fs-white-canvas-belts/'>http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19803-fs-white-canvas-belts/<. Cheers Christian Edited September 4, 2016 by Novak Dimon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentry71[TK] Posted September 5, 2016 Report Share Posted September 5, 2016 In addition to what Christian listed above, consider adding bicep hooks to keep the biceps from sliding down. This will help the forearms stay up as well, and give a more consistent look to it. You already have the elastic on the bells, so a simple addition will be all that is necessary. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31920-ukswraths-am-10-ata-bucket-build/?p=412528 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted September 6, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2016 Thank you guys for the tips. I'll definitely be looking into these before I take my approval photos. I'm going for base approval first, but my ultimate goal is EIB. Not sure if I can bring this to Centurion, as the rivets holding the thigh ammo belt on aren't the proper type, and I really don't want to disassemble now, as it's comfortable. Some things I did notice while I was out at DragonCon: 1) I lost weight since I did the thighs, so they're very large on me, the bottoms of the thighs actually "swing" as I walk. I'll need to trim and fix. 2) The velcro holding the calves together is stronger than E6000. I need to get a stronger glue to hold that together. 3) The strap holding my voice amp in the chest plate needs to be attached with something other than E6000, as it won't bond to the strap material. 4) I need to cover my Camelback in white before I stick it in the backplate, so it's less noticeable and I can actually use it. 5) I need to mess with the strapping so the back plate sits higher on my back and the chestplate sits lower on my front. The whole set of armor kept "rotating" somewhat around my body with the front getting pulled up and the back getting pulled down as I walked. This means the shoulders start digging a little weirdly. I also need to pull off some more return edging on the shoulders of the front and back plates. 6) I need to adjust the bucket's padding a little so it sits better on my head, need to change how the battery pack for the fans mounts in the bucket, and I need to adjust where the fans blow as to not blow on the mic. Also need to trim the return edge around the eyes a little on that bucket. The undersuit (patched together with Reebok and Nike compression clothing) helps keep me surprisingly cool compared to the undersuit that came with the Anovos kit. I'm glad I switched. And when worn correctly, any seams/logos/etc. are not visible in any way. I will probably stick with the new undersuit type and buy a couple more sets so I can do cons without smelling bad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravant Posted September 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2016 (edited) Final Photos! Alright, now there are some minor adjustments that still need made, but can be done over time now that I'm not pressed for time. But, here's the final photos as taken Thursday night. All photos provided by my awesome roommate who's behind Imperial Photography. Edited September 10, 2016 by Ravant 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentry71[TK] Posted September 13, 2016 Report Share Posted September 13, 2016 A few things I noticed from these pics, which you may want to consider: - The shoulder bells should be brought up to the outside of the shoulder straps, not over them. This will help the bells sit lower, and help cover the biceps a little more now that you have them pulled down toward the forearms. - You already mentioned that you will work on resizing the thighs a little, so nothing to add there from this end. - We don't see the strapping internally, but an elastic strap or two from the chest to the abdomen would help keep it from rotating backward on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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